Spooky! Human Brain Waves Control Mouse Genes

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Human thoughts can be used to turn on genes in mice, new research
suggests.

A tiny, light-based machine uses
people's brain waves to generate a flicker of light, which
then turns on genes in the brains of mice. The new method could
one day be used by people who suffer from chronic pain or
epilepsy to instantly deliver drugs from a brain implant when
they experience characteristic brain waves at the onset of pain
or a seizure, said study author Martin Fussenegger, a researcher
at the ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

In recent years, scientists have developed tiny, biologically
based machines from some of the fundamental building blocks of
life, such as DNA, RNA and proteins. For instance, scientists
have designed
microbial drug factories out of yeast and bacteria that
produce drugs like morphine. Other groups have created life-forms
with completely
man-made six-letter DNA. And still others have created tiny
computer hard-drives that use DNA as the coding language.

Other researchers have designed cybernetic brain implants where,
humans or monkeys can control the brain waves of monkeys. But few
researchers have tried to combine both synthetic molecular
machines and brain implants.

In their new study, Fussenegger and his colleagues asked several
volunteers to meditate, concentrate by playing a game of
"Minecraft" or control their
brain activity with biofeedback, a technique where people
sync their brain waves using a guided display Each of these
activities produces a unique signature of electrical brain
activity, which was captured by electroencephalography (EEG) and
fed wirelessly into an implant in a mouse's brain.

"These brain-wave patterns they are recorded, processed and then
we designated a certain threshold," Fussenegger said. "If the
pattern goes above this threshold level, it turns on a
near-infrared LED for a defined period of time."

This near-infrared light then trips a tiny cellular machine — a
bacterial protein that is activated by light — inside the mouse's
brain implant. The bacterial protein sets off a chemical cascade
that turns on a tailor-made gene snippet that encodes a specific
human protein. The team then verifies that the genes are
activated by measuring the human protein levels in the mouse's
bloodstream, Fussenegger said.

Tiny brain factories

Though the current experiment used a human protein with no
therapeutic purpose, the same technique could eventually be used
in the human brain to deliver precise quantities of drugs as
needed, Fussenegger said.

For instance, just before an
epileptic seizure, the brain produces a unique type of
electrical activity that could trigger a tiny, light-activated
genetic implant that quickly produces an anti-seizure medication.
Chronic pain may also produce signature brain waves just before
the onset of discomfort, which could be used to preemptively
produce painkillers in the brain.

"This is an interesting proof of concept," said Kevin Gardner, a
structural biologist at the City University of New York's
Advanced Science Research Center who was not involved in the
study.

But applications in humans are likely a long way off, Gardner
told Live Science.

The study was published today (Nov. 11) in the journal Nature
Communications.